Autofagia eta haren erregulazioa osasunean eta gaixotasunean

Abstract

Autophagy, is a process that occurs constitutively in all eukaryotic cells that helps maintaining the correct homeostatic balance (degrading damaged cellular components and maintaining the energy balance) in situations of stress or limited energy availability. When referring to autophagy, it must be differentiated from apoptosis. In general, autophagy is a protective mechanism which allows the adaptation of the cell to non-lethal stress levels. When this stress reaches a certain level, or is maintained during time, apoptosis is activated in order to degrade the whole cell. To date, three types of autophagy have been described, which are chaperone-mediated autophagy, microautophagy and macroautophagy, being the lysosomal degradation of cytoplasmic material the common characteristic in all of them. In general, autophagy guarantees a correct cellular function and survival, and consequently, its impairment affects negatively the cellular performance, leading to the appearance of different diseases. Due to the relationship between autophagy and the onset and development of several disease and situations (neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or aging) scientific community has been interested on looking for molecules or interventions that activate or restore this process. Nevertheless, the lack of knowledge regarding secondary effects that may occur as a result of the activation of this process, more studies conducted in humans are needed before its use with therapeutic purposes.